Chevrolet Seeks Filmmakers’ Help for Oscars Ads

Chevrolet previously used crowdsourcing to create ads for its Camaro muscle car.

Nominations for the next Academy Awards may be several months away, but we already know Chevrolet will be part of the Oscars broadcast.

The car maker said it entered an agreement to advertise during the Oscars for the next five years as part of a strategy to attract a bigger, more diverse group of car shoppers. Chevy also put out the call to independent filmmakers to help tell “a story celebrating the simple, yet significant moments in life.”

The company said it will work with Mofilm, a global creative group, to find filmmakers throughout the world to create spots about interesting things that happen as people move between point A and point B. The best commercial to come out of the project could be aired during the ABC Oscars broadcast on March 2, 2014.

This sort of crowdsourcing has served Chevrolet well in past advertising including the “Happy Grad” spot for its Camaro muscle car that ran last year. The latest effort is part of the company’s “Find New Roads” marketing theme.

“As new roads in daily life are found and explored, Chevrolet vehicles naturally become a part of significant moments and memories,” said Chevrolet marketing boss Tim Mahoney. “We hope the ingenuity of this program will allow filmmakers to capture the essence of what owning a Chevrolet means to people around the world.”

Early scripts will be considered for mentorship by a panel including “Titanic” and “Avatar” producer Jon Landau, director, producer, writer and actor Spike Lee and Chevrolet’s Mahoney.

The program is open from June through November. Interested filmmakers must submit their scripts by August 16.

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